Pages

Thursday, October 09, 2014

Interview With Brock Eastman - Part I

Years ago, authors were like characters in their books -- people who seemed real, but untouchable.

Enter the world of 2014, my friend. I can tweet, email, stalk an author and actually get a human response.

This is what happened with writer Brock Eastman.

He just looks like he's got a story to tell you, doesn't he?

You may know his work from Focus on the Family books such as The Quest of Truth series.

These books are great adventures for the middle grade years.

A few of my students read another book by Eastman called Howlsage:

They loved it! And when my students get excited about a book, I do my best to connect with the author and let them know. I made sure to write a quick review on Amazon and connect on Twitter.

Here are a couple excerpts from my Amazon review:

My students couldn't wait to read the next book in this trilogy, but when I realized that the books weren't available yet, I discovered we could play a part in helping Brock publish and finish the set.

The publisher of the Howlsage book made a decision to no longer publish fiction. So as a writer, Brock had to find a way to publish them himself. His Kickstarter Campaign is almost 70% funded.

Brock was kind enough to answer a few questions for me and my students. Here is the beginning of this interview:

﻿

1.What
kind of books did you read when you were in school?

This is a big regret for me from my school
days. I really didn’t read much at all. I read required books and my Bible, but
that was primarily it. I missed out on so much and it wasn’t until college and
the Harry Potter series that I fell in love with reading. Now I have bookshelves
filled with books I have read and books I can’t wait to read. Seriously--to any
kid reading this, read books. If you aren’t, you’re missing out on a lot of
amazing adventures through the wild world of your imagination.

2.When
and how did becoming an author happen for you?

Well, I was officially published in 2011 with the
release of Taken, but it was in 2005 when I wrote the manuscript for Taken and
Risk (The Quest for Truth) as one book called Evad that I became an author. I
say this because being an author is more than getting a contract and having
your book printed and sold. It’s about committing to writing a story from
beginning to end. How I became an author is simply put an act of God. When I look
back at my path to publishing, there’s no way I could have done without it
being part of God’s plan. From choosing my career in marketing, to writing a
100k word manuscript in 2005 with no plans to publish, to marrying my wife and
moving to Colorado where I worked for Focus on the Family, and then got
involved with Adventures in Odyssey and marketing kids’ products, which taught
me about publishing and opened up lots of doors and relationships for my book
to become a reality.

3.What
does a “normal” day for you look like as a writer?

Well, I, like many, have a full time job. I
currently work for a wonderful ministry called Compassion International. This
job keeps the lights on and my family fed. My family comes before writing so
when I’m not working, I’m spending time with them. Then in that small
percentage of time I have left over, I write, and I write like a madman. I like
to just let my imagination flow down from my brain and through my fingertips to
the keyboard. After I’ve let myself explore and capture the story, then I go
back and revise and edit. So when I write it’s intense and involved, it’s a lot
of coffee and soundtracks. Sometimes I’ll write until 2 in the morning.

4.What
do you do when the story just isn’t coming together?

I just sighed when I read this question,
because it’s a tough reality when it happens. When the story doesn’t come
together, it can really slow me down or discourage me. Because I write by the
seat of my pants and write rapidly, a disruption can cause me to take long
breaks from the story as I try to ponder what to do next, or how to fix the
problem. Though I have developed a few methods to help with this, some are
short, some are long. The short ones are going and watching a movie or
television show completely unrelated to the topic of my story. Playing with my
kids also helps; their imaginations are inspirational to me. Some longer
commitments are digging into a good book that I’ve been waiting to read (again
unrelated to my story topic) or sometimes I’ll switch gears and start planning
or writing an entirely new book. If you could see the amounts of starter stories
or ideas I have, you’d know I’ll be writing until I’m 120.

What books is Brock currently reading and what advice does he have for young authors?

Goodreads Update

Nobody is doing Young Adult Fiction better than Jeff Zentner right now. Older teens will appreciate how he captures conflicting emotions and tumultuous relationships while keeping a great sense of humor.

It took me FOREVER to finish this. I almost abandoned it, but picked it up over Spring Break. It's difficult to read because this is a childhood that we'd rather not know about.
The second half of the book is most fascinating to me as h...